Keith Shepherd

Principal Soil Scientist, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Co-leader of the Restoring Degraded Landscapes Research Theme, WLE

WLE Science Focal Point for ICRAF

k.shepherd (at) cgiar.org

Keith Shepherd is a principal soil scientist at ICRAF with over 30 years’ research experience in tropical land management. He leads ICRAF’s science domain on land health and the Centre’s Soil-Plant Spectral Diagnostics Laboratory. His research focuses on decision analytics and the development and application of land health surveillance and response – an evidence-based approach for monitoring and assessing land and soil health and targeting interventions for land improvement. He holds a PhD in agricultural botany from University of Reading, UK.

This guide provides details on the history and pros and cons of four participatory diversity deployment methods, helping practitioners distinguish between the methods and choose one that best fits their objectives.

This variety catalogue of notified varieties and promising landraces of eight crops important for the high mountain agricultural zones of Nepal is an important tool for farmers and researchers concerned with agricultural production, food security and agrobiodiversity conservation.

Sub-Saharan Africa has more than 50 percent of the world’s potential for land cultivation. Yet, most of this land is in poor condition and unable to satisfy the needs of agricultural production. The Africa Soil Information Services project helps meet these needs with a gridded Soil Information System of Africa and soil nutrient maps.

Poor soil health is recognized as a major cause of decline in agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. This low cost soil and plant analysis technology works to improve management of natural resources through light photon based methods.

Soil is a vital part of the natural environment. It supports the growth of plants, is a habitat for many different organisms and is at the heart of nearly all agricultural production. It also plays an integral role in countless other ecosystem services like water and climate regulation.

As part of WLE's partnership with The Economist Events' Sustainability Summit, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre explore how sustainability can be evaluated to improve decisions in development and business.

For over 40 years as an international soil scientist, I have been hearing more and more what I call “The Soil Scientists’ Lament” – the cry that “soils are neglected”, “soils are under-valued”, “inaction on soil degradation is costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year”, “but those who make public policy are not listening to us”.

For big decisions, like buying a car, we may do a bit of research; but most of the time, we simply follow our gut feeling as a guide. But do we want those who make decisions on some of the biggest issues in development to also follow their gut instinct? Decision analysis tools can improve the decision making process.